Objectives: To know the clinical profile of the students affected due to food poisoning, the possible source of infection and the causative agent for food poisoning. Background: Food-borne diseases due to microbial contamination of food, represent serious threat to the health of millions of people henceforth, we investigated into the outbreak of food poisoning in a nursing hostel of urban Mysore. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted using semi-structured questionnaire to gather information on regarding time and type of food item consumed, onset of symptoms, presenting symptoms, medical care provided and time taken for recovery. A case for the outbreak was defined as any person who had consumed lunch on 9/12/12 from the implicated kitchen and had experienced vomiting or diarrhea or pain abdomen or all the three symptoms within 24 hours of eating lunch. Results: Out of 171 inmates,46 people suffered from food poisoning within a period of 3 days,thus leading to the attack rate of 26.9%.Commonest symptom reported among the students was pain abdomen (26.9%) followed by diarrhea. Highest risk of food poisoning was associated with consumption of “Kerala matta rice” This association was statistically significant with relative risk of 31.49 (95% CI 10.82-95.6). Samples of ‘Kerala matta rice” was subjected to bacteriological analysis, which showed colonies of coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus. Conclusions: In the present outbreak, the results of investigation revealed that ‘Kerala matta rice’ was the food item responsible for occurrence of food poisoning due to Staphylococcus. Environmental factors that could have played an important role in bacterial proliferation and enterotoxin production are manual handling of cooked rice by the food handlers and storage of the rice at room temperature for a long duration between time of preparation and consumption.

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